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Tuesday, 15 July 2014

UK's NEW SURVEILLANCE BILL 'It defies belief': SNOWDEN

'It defies belief': Snowden condemns UK’s new surveillance bill

Edward Snowden.(AFP Photo / NBC)

As a result of I myself being currently a target of what I believe is originally an MI5 dirty tricks campaign on Facebook of character assassination, I found the following during the course of my research.

A veteran campaigner for Scottish independence has accused so-called cybernats who subjected author JK Rowling to a tirade of internet abuse of “opening the door” on a MI5 dirty tricks campaign to scupper a Yes vote in the forthcoming referendum.

Former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars claimed it was “naïve” to think that British Secret Services were not involved in seeking to influence the outcome of September’s ballot which could see the break-up of the UK.He said that he was personally aware of one secret agent having arrived in Glasgow.

Mr Sillars said that impersonators posted the abusive comments, including one sent from a hacked charity on a Twitter feed viciously blasting a lie that Ms Rowling for her £1m donation to pro-union Better Together this week was meant to harm the independence cause. “I don’t know who did. Somebody did it that is inimical to the yes campaign,” he said.

Mr Sillars said that online smears and insults had delivered a publicity coup for supporters of the status quo.

“Are you so naive, that you never think that perhaps MI5 and special branch are taking a role in this campaign? As their function is protection of the British State, they would not be doing their jobs if they were not. There was, and probably still is, a section in MI5 that dealt with the Scottish national movement, headed by Stella Rimington, who became Director General in 1992, and is now Dame Stella,”

He added: “Do not you think that they will now be more engaged than ever, now that independence is on the agenda? Has it ever crossed your mind that by conducting a campaign of abuse, which plays into the hands of the No media, you are opening the Yes side to a dirty tricks campaign?”

Speaking later, Mr Sillars, who said he had worked with the security services during his political career, said: ”I know there was an MI5 guy arrived in Glasgow. I won’t tell you how or why I know it. I know when he came.”He added that continuing internet abuse meant: “You open the door to MI5 to take a role that we wouldn’t know about and wouldn’t be able to identify.”

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NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has denounced the UK’s emergency surveillance bill, criticizing its heightened powers of intrusion and the distinct lack of public debate it encompassed.

During an exclusive interview in Moscow with the Guardian, the whistleblower suggested it was highly unusual for a state to process legislation so hastily other than at a time of acutely endangered national security.

"I mean we don't have bombs falling. We don't have U-boats in the harbour”, he emphasised. Yet suddenly this legislation has become an absolute priority. "It defies belief", he stated.

Snowden found the duress with which the UK government processed the Data Retention and Investigation Powers Bill to be remarkable, comparing it to the Bush administration’s introduction of the Protect America Act in 2007. The Protect America Act was issued after the New York Times exposed a“warrantless wire-tapping programme” that was both illegal and“unconstitutional”, he said.

The UK government claims Britain’s emergency bill will preserve UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies’ access to data that is vital for “protecting national security and preventing serious crime.” According to Snowden, the case the US administration built to justify the Protection of America Act is notably similar.

"I mean the NSA could have written this draft…They passed it under the same sort of emergency justification. They said we would be at risk. They said companies will no longer cooperate with us."

Whitehall’s rhetoric of UK intelligence services’ diminished investigative powers in a climate of potential terror threats is certainly reminiscent of the Bush administration’s claims in 2007. As Snowden notes, both governments cited intelligence services’ waning assistance from internet and telecom companies in a climate of looming terrorist threats as requiring swift and decisive action.

View of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the Washington.(AFP Photo / Paul J. Richards)

And like Britain's emergency surveillance legislation, this US' Protection of America Act 2007 was enacted in the absence of fair and open public debate, .

Snowden’s observations reflect the concerns of myriad UK civil liberties groups who are acutely skeptical about coalition claims the legislation is temporary and will not adversely compromise the privacy rights of Britons.

In an effort to secure cross-party backing from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Prime Minister David Cameron vowed the legislation would not entail an extension of the state’s surveillance powers. But according to the Guardian, internal Home Office documents appear to indicate that that British authorities’ surveillance powers will be expanded.

During his recent interview – a rare occurrence since he secured asylum in Russia almost a year ago - Snowden commented that Britain’s emergency legislation marked “a significant change” in Britain’s surveillance landscape. He also questioned why the UK government were pushing it through shortly after a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling confirmed existing surveillance measures were overly intrusive.

"If these surveillance authorities are so interested, so invasive, the courts are actually saying they violate fundamental rights, do we really want to authorize them on a new, increased and more intrusive scale without any public debate?”

Reflecting on a year-long government silence following his exposure of the depth and scale of NSA-GCHQ oversight, Snowden stated that Britain’s new surveillance legislation effectively “looks like it was written by the National Security Agency”.

The UK government has justified the new legislation on the grounds of feared terrorist activities emanating from an alleged member of Al-Qaida in Yemen linked to fundamentalist Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria.

The Tories deny this bill raises privacy concerns, stating it does not necessitate public debate. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have demonstrated hesitance in contributing to public debate on the matter, perhaps fearful of repercussions they might endure were a terrorist attack to occur.

Despite having expert knowledge of surveillance and the agencies that sustain it, Snowden’s comments are unlikely to phase many UK parliamentarians. While his revelations sparked inquiries waged by two separate parliamentary committees, the privacy rights advocate is yet to garner vocal support among UK MPs.

Campaigners, opposed to the UK’s new surveillance bill, argue it contains unprecedented power for Britain to demand foreign companies comply with warrants for interception. It also increases the government’s leverage to acquire sensitive communications data, they insist.

Comments (68)

L14.07.2014 19:19

When you r8pe your subjects for hundreds of years, you get a little bored, so you then r8pe the children! then you get caught and you get worried that the legality of your many actions will soon be brought to light, thus legalise what we can before its lock down!!!Not that any of that matters as the sheeple are so far gone that the power elite can do what ever they want whenever they want for as long as they want without any real reprise from the masses, as they just don't care, or pretend if they see nothing then they say nothing then there is no problem! Sick!

Nigel Howard14.07.2014 19:13

The UK and US have lost their edge internationally. All they can bank on is the advantage of eavesdropping on everyone else's online activities and phone calls. This and only this, gives them an advantage in today's rapidly changing global marketplace. This illegal, 'omniscient' power, makes them like God, when in fact all they're doing is spying on their own citizens and spying on the economic activity of their competitors. Insider trading and an entire host of other organized crime is their forte and M.O. They can't possibly compete with a level playing field.